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http://www.themote.com/archive/archive_conflict-mideast_pt1a.htm
. jexster - 2/28/2003 7:00:05 PM
On Feb. 24, Newsweek broke what may be the biggest story of the Iraq crisis. In a revelation that 'raises questions about whether the WMD stockpiles attributed to Iraq still exist,' the magazine's issue dated March 3 reported that the Iraqi weapons chief who defected from the regime in 1995 told U.N. inspectors that Iraq had destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and banned missiles, as Iraq claims... CIA spokesperson Bill Harlow angrily denied the Newsweek report. 'It is incorrect, bogus, wrong, untrue,' Harlow told Reuters (2/24/03). But on 2/26/03, a complete copy of the Kamel transcript - an internal UNSCOM/IAEA document stamped 'sensitive' - was obtained by Glen Rangwala, the Cambridge University analyst who revealed that Tony Blair's 'intelligence dossier' was plagiarized from a student thesis. In the transcript (p. 13), Kamel says bluntly: 'All weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear, were destroyed.'"
Bush's W-ar is a lie - 'All weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear, were destroyed
3973. jexster - 2/28/2003 7:03:48 PM
I've put the question before and will do so again.
Has there ever been a more inept, stumbling, bumbling, march toward war?
US Diplomat Resigns over W-ar
"A career diplomat who has served in United States embassies from Tel Aviv to Casablanca to Yerevan resigned this week in protest against the country's policies on Iraq. The diplomat, John Brady Kiesling, the political counselor at the United States Embassy in Athens, said in his resignation letter, 'Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson.'"
And again, has there ever been a more unpopular war before the first shot is fired?
3974. concerned - 2/28/2003 8:58:29 PM
At lunch today, I read a rather frustrating editorial by a WP columnist named Jim Hoagland regarding the current US/French relationship wrt Iraq.
He goes into some detail about factors that are presumably contributing to Chirac's obdurate anti-US posture, such as a peculiarly French belief that Saddam is the best choice to rule Iraq, that any American action would 'inflame' Arab, Muslim and African opinion against the West in general, that France would be rocked to its core by protests by French Muslims if the US harms a hair on Saddam's head, etc., most of which falls short in the plausibility department.
But, even if these fears were well grounded, France has not made even a token attempt to address how to transition from the pressure that 200,000 mostly US allied troops are placing on Saddam to a substitute that would be equally effective but under other than US auspices. Until Chirac seriously develops & commits to process that promises to effectively resolve the existing problem in Iraq, which will likely require a major show of force commensurate to that of the Americans who have no intention of spending months in the desert while Old Yurrup fritters away any impetus that the US approach has given the process of disarmament so far (which has so far failed to move Saddam to willingly disarm to any extent whatsoever but is the only thing keeping him from throwing the UN inspectors out again), in the final analysis, Chirac's just posturing.
3975. concerned - 2/28/2003 9:21:49 PM
From the Sun Online UK: Iraq Scud Boss Poisoned
Iraq Scud boss poisoned By GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON
SADDAM Hussein’s top missile expert has been murdered to stop him blabbing to the UN.
General Muhammad Sa’id al Darraj died on Thursday after Saddam’s men poisoned his drink.
Relatives say he was ordered to hide details of Iraqi Scuds from the UN — but devious Saddam did not trust him.
General al-Darraj was murdered hours before Saddam agreed to the destruction. The engineer had been called to a meeting at one of Saddam’s palaces for talks about how to mislead UN scientists over Iraq’s Scud programme.
Moments before he died, he managed to tell his family Saddam’s officials had spiked his drink with poison.
British intelligence chiefs said the murder was another example of Saddam’s ruthlessness.
They said it underlined his total disregard for human rights.
Saddam had his own son-in-law assassinated when he exposed the tyrant’s weapons of mass destruction.
In other news, Hans Blix is telling the UN that Saddam is showing 'new signs' of cooperation.
*sigh*
3976. jexster - 2/28/2003 9:32:43 PM
*sigh* When Hussein Was Our Ally
He was one helluva lot more dangerous than he is now. Right Eddie?
Newly released documents reveal U.S. talk of regime change in the early 1980s - except then it was language condemning Iran for attempting to overthrow the government in Baghdad.
In an interview Tuesday with the Arab-language television network Al-Jazeera, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld laid out again the case for war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Among other crimes, he said, Iraq "used chemical weapons on its neighbor Iran."
The defense secretary has reason to remember that crime. It was taking place in December 1983, when Rumsfeld met with Hussein as a special envoy of President Ronald Reagan
3977. concerned - 2/28/2003 9:33:10 PM
Hans Blix is a happy camper. He likes his job and he wants to believe.
3978. jexster - 2/28/2003 9:50:45 PM
Crusader Babbitt - On the Strange Connection Between Bush's War and Freaky Fundamentalists
3979. jexster - 2/28/2003 9:56:01 PM
3980. Al D - 2/28/2003 10:25:48 PM
http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson022803.asp I would urge all to read this article by Victor Davis Hanson. I would link if I knew how.
3981. arkymalarky - 2/28/2003 11:45:50 PM
Hanson
3982. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 3/1/2003 2:01:46 AM
oderint dum metuant: Let them hate so long as they fear. (A favorite saying of Caligura.)
Rummy's Special BBQ Apron
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3983. concerned - 3/1/2003 2:28:25 AM
Hey, jex -
What do you think the chances are of Sodamn and his puke sons hanging off sticks in Ragdad before this time next month?
3984. jexster - 3/1/2003 10:28:11 AM
Bush has now admitted that his UN speech etc was just a charade, a lie, a contrivance to get him through the election.
But we all knew that didn't we.
3985. jexster - 3/1/2003 10:29:21 AM
I think the chances of Saddam doing Bush's bidding are roughly equal to the converse
3986. jexster - 3/1/2003 10:32:37 AM
What do you think TD, has there ever been a more inept, transparent, stumbling, bumbling toward a more unpopular war than this? This is not a rhetorical question. I can think of no historical examples but I only claim serious knowledge of Euro history. Maybe the Bantus or the Zulus or Apache.
http://www.themote.com/archive/archive_conflict-mideast_pt1a.htm
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